Press Conference – Michel Thétaz «The 2015 season done and dusted»

Passion. Perseverance. Performance. These are three words, three sentiments even, that Michel Thétaz, CEO of IAM (the manager of the IAMFUNDS.CH investment funds) wanted to emphasis and develop during the press conference that opened up the 2016 season, which is the Swiss professional team’s second year riding in the World Tour.

It is an important moment when all the riders and staff members gather together to attend the tradition that the head man established from the beginning of the team’s existence. Michel Thétaz, along with the youngest rider of the team, who this year is Sondre Holst Enger (21), breaks la marmite de l’Escalade, or chocolate pot of Escalade, which celebrates a famous Swiss victory against Charles Emmanuel I, Duke of Savoy in 1602.

Yet by Thursday afternoon, Matthias Frank, Stef Clement, Jerome Coppel and company, will be hard at work for their first team training camp on the roads of Mallorca.  Their camp will continue until the 18th of December, with a second phase on the Spanish island scheduled for the 11th to the 21st of January 2016.

Thétaz proudly presented the newly designed jersey for his team, which will kick off its season on January 17 at the Down Under Classic (Australia).  As a prominent financier from Geneva, Thétaz is enthusiastic as well as demanding with regards to the objectives that he has set for his 28 riders, as well as the managers (Serge Beucherie, Rik Verbrugghe), athletic directors (Kjell Carlström, Mario Chiesa, Thierry Marichal, Lionel Marie, Eddy Seigneur) and coaches (Marcello Albasini, Hendrik Werner).

“The 2015 season is done and dusted. Our team performed strongly and is well established.  The goal now is to win more races than we did in 2015 (15 total) by using the strengths of the team.  I have asked our sports leadership to target the Tour de Romandie, the Tour de Suisse, and the Swiss road championships in Martigny, and of course the Tour de France.  These will be our major objectives for the year, and our recruiting of riders has been targeted accordingly.  The Australian Leigh Howard, the Norwegian Vegard Stake Laengen, the Belgian Oliver Naesen and the Swiss Oliver Zaugg have been  called up to reinforce the team and to be at the service of our leaders.”

For his part, Rik Verbrugghe, the team’s sports manager, reiterated the boss’ statements.  “We have to be among the leaders in the World Tour races if we want to improve from our last place among the 17 teams, and to meet the objectives of our sponsor.  There will be other races on the calendar where we will play a more opportunistic role.  With the goal to be even more visible on the center stage, and of course win more races, we have strengthened our sprint train intended to support Matteo Pelucchi.”